This is a post that used to be on the Birthlove site, owned by my friend, Leilah McCracken.  I forgot that Leilah had put up the old family photo (below) with a little story about my mom breastfeeding me.

“I am the daughter of a British war bride who met a handsome Canadian soldier in London during the war. My mom was the only woman in the local Canadian hospital who chose to breastfeed her babies- that is all she had ever seen in England, and she didn’t know if she could manage all the scientific preparation of formula!  This was in the late 1940’s, post W.W. II.

“Left to right [in photo below]: David, Marian, Gloria and Roy (hiding in the background). We were all breastfed for 3 months and weaned abruptly the day we turned 3 months. My mother remembered that in England they said the children should be nursed for 3 months so that’s the way she did it. It must have been brutal for her and for the babies to have that sudden weaning.

“My older brother, David, was a very hungry baby so she would breastfeed him and then give him a whole bottle of condensed canned milk as well to try to satisfy him every feeding. She went in the bedroom and closed the door to breastfeed– her children were not allowed to see her breast. She said that my older sister, Marian, and I were the easiest babies because we sucked our thumbs all the time. I sucked my thumb till I was about 8 years old.”  Gloria Lemay

We were a family of 6 kids. These are the eldest 4.